Yesterday
I experienced something I hope many conservatives will share this election
year. Rampant dissatisfaction with the two-party system in America today
makes it a positive experience.

Few
of us, Republican or Democrat, like what is happening these days in Washington,
D.C. Government officials seem blind to the fact they do not govern. Rather,
they rule. It is difficult to determine if the rulers understand that
they are not governing. They think we don’t understand. They think
they haven’t explained “it” well enough – whatever
“it” is (health care, Cap and Trade, environmentalism, Freddie
and Fannie, bailouts, AIG fraud, etc.). They believe we’re just
not bright enough to “get” the programs they want to shove
down our throats.

The
truth is we are not the ones who don’t understand what they’re
doing. We understand very well what they’re doing! It is they who
lack insight into their own actions. Either that is true, or some in the
District of Columbia are vipers who may be wrapping themselves around
an altar called “treason.”

There
is no middle ground here. Either elected officials know when they violate
the Constitution and their Oaths of Office to protect and defend it, or
they do not. We the People know. And we do not like the loss of freedom.
We dislike their decision – without our input, of course –
to label the Constitution of the united States of America “a living
document.” By craftily changing the intent of a Constitution that
limits government, progressive liberals believe they will have free reign
to implement statism. Then they can control all things, not just
interstate commerce.

There
is no middle ground that says, “Well, I read the Constitution and
I swore to uphold it, but I disagree with what it says on this point and
that point. The Founding Fathers didn’t know we’d have television
and would travel to the moon. Things have changed and the Constitution
needs to be interpreted from a modern perspective.” What they mean
when they say it is: “The Constitution needs to be interpreted based
on my personal perspective of right and wrong.”

None
of us care what elected officials think! We do, however, care about their
actions. Of late, few of them have shown a thought process that preserves
the rights and freedoms of We the People so painstakingly laid out in
the U.S. Constitution. That document begins with the words, “We
the People,” not “We the government.”

We the
People, aren’t altogether innocent. We allowed this to happen. When
we value something, we refuse to give it up. It is seldom taken from us
without a fight. Fortunately, a lot of people are beginning to crawl out
of their apathetic stupor and fight to reclaim what has already been lost.
They want the onslaught stopped. That’s what Tea Parties are all
about this year. We lost a lot of ground, however, while waiting for people
to get angry enough to recover from years of political inertia.

It always
amazes me when readers write in response to one of my articles by saying
they have been good citizens all their lives. “I have voted in every
election” is a frequent remark.

That’s
good. It is the second most important thing Americans do to fulfill their
responsibilities to their country. However, the most important commitment
any citizen can shoulder is that of putting candidates of the people on
the ballot so voters can elect those who represent them, not just a political
party’s platform. Let’s face it, folks, both major parties
have been hijacked by progressive liberals. Because of political apathy,
We the People allowed it to happen.

Hopefully,
many readers will share an experience I recently had—and do so before
the November elections. Thursday night in Mesa County where I live, an
alliance of Tea Party groups sponsored a Candidate Forum for Republican
Candidates from Colorado’s Third Congressional District. Both candidates
answered a series of prepared questions. Then the audience participated
with questions and answers.

They
talked about Cap and Trade, jobs, energy, health care, and the environment.
The candidate approved by the Republican Party said pretty much the same
thing Republicans are used to hearing: lower taxes, more jobs, lower-cost
energy, we must drill, drill, drill and become energy independent (it’s
been 35 years since Republicans first said that – and look at our
progress!). Both candidates appear to share conservative values, but one
seemed more ready than the other to equivocate or move into grey areas
of bi-partisan compromise rather than stand and fight for his beliefs.

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The
idea that politicians must compromise has become a huge part of the problem
in our nation’s capitol. Black and white is black and white, and
grey is grey. At the moment, we have a House and Senate full of politicians
who say they are liberal or conservative, who say they are Republican
or Democrat, but who prefer compromise with the other side to taking a
stand for what’s best for We the People. The two-party system is
strongest when two different sides fight to the end for what they believe
best serves the people and the Constitution. Compromising with your opponent
to keep unwanted parts out of proposed legislation in a final Bill is
not only foolhardy, it is dangerous.

When
Scott Tipton was questioned about why two of the Western Colorado Tea
Parties have endorsed a guy named Bob McConnell and not him, the Republican-approved
candidate, Tipton, criticized the process of the endorsements and the
power of the Tea Parties. Hello, Mr. Tipton. Do you not realize that you
just told Tea Party members the same thing Obama tells people? “They
just don’t understand what’s happening and why.” Tipton
noted he was on the radar of the Republican Party as a "young gun."
What candidates don’t seem to realize is that being “on the
radar” of either political party is a good way to lose political
races this year.

I looked
at the brochure of Tipton’s adversary, Bob McConnell, and noted
that he was the Honor Graduate of his Ranger training, a paratrooper in
the elite 509th Airborne, and a combat leader in the 7th Cavalry. Tipton
may have been identified by Republicans as a “young gun,”
but McConnell was identified as a "top gun" in 1969. Youth is
not necessarily an advantage in politics. Leadership is a learned skill.

Selwyn
Duke’s recent article about Christianity and faith says two things
all political candidates need to hear this year. First, he pointed out
that truth is spelled with a capital “T.” It doesn’t
change. Second, he made the point that right and wrong are not matters
of opinion and they do not change from time to time and place to place.
Truth is not a matter of convenience and is what people are looking for
in their political candidates 2010.

McConnell’s
brochure interested me. One column is titled “This I Believe.”
He says he is “a Constitution carrying conservative Republican”
and the paragraph continues on with typical Republican talking points
about lower taxes, limited government, free markets, and a strong national
defense. But he adds a couple of things that are not usual Republican
rhetoric: “Protecting individual rights and developing individual
responsibilities.” He further says “I will uphold and defend
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and
domestic.” How many times have you seen that printed in a Republican
brochure lately?

I talked
personally with McConnell the next day. We had never met before. For an
hour, I asked him and his wife, Phyllis, some pretty tough questions.
We discussed not just the reason banks need to start lending but discussed
how to do it. We talked about what needs to be done to secure our borders.
We spoke about many key issues. McConnell is obviously a man who has seen
the world and learned from the experience. And he listens!

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What
I was looking for is what I hope you will look for in political candidates
this year. The reason I asked McConnell such hard questions – and
some of them might be considered rude – was to determine if Bob
McConnell really has a conservative philosophy or if he was just spouting
the same old rhetoric regarding conservative issues?

Marilyn
Barnewall received her graduate degree in Banking from the University
of Colorado Graduate School of Business in 1978. She has authored seven
non-fiction books about banking, two are listed at Oxford and Cambridge
University libraries in Great Britain. Her current book, When
the Swan’s Neck Breaks, details the banking problems she foresaw
in 2006. Of the 24 predictions made in the book, 22 have happened. It
is fiction but readers refer to it as docu-fiction.

Barnewall was
named one of America's top 100 businesswomen in the book, What It Takes
(Dolphin/Doubleday; Gardenswartz and Roe) and was one of the founders
of the Committee of 200, the official organization of America's top 200
businesswomen. She can be found in Who's:Who in America (2005-08), Who's
Who of American Women (2006-08), Who's Who in Finance and Business (2006-08),
and Who's Who in the World (2008).